CH 27

Whether the jade is good depends on its color.

Wang Hongmei looked at the jade bracelet in her hand and frowned, “Son, does this jade bracelet costs a lot of money?”

“It’s okay. It’s just a little over 20,000.”

Seeing his mother’s worried eyes, Lin Xian smiled and said, ”Don’t worry, Mother. I bought this at the Yuyuan Jewelry Store. It is not that expensive.”

“Oh, that’s okay.”

Yuyuan Jewelry Store’s reputation is not bad. But Wang Hongmei still couldn’t help but say: “Don’t buy such an expensive gift next time. If I accidentally break it, it will be distressing!”

Lin Guodong played with the lighter with satisfaction, and then nodded and said: “This lighter is not bad. But I haven’t heard this brand.”

“Cartier lighters are worth more than six thousand.” Lin Xian smiled.

“What?!”

Wang Hongmei stopped what she was doing as soon as she heard Lin Xian. “A lighter cost more than 6,000? Why did you buy such an expensive one? It just lights a fire. You can just buy one for one to two yuan!”

“Wang Hongmei, what do you mean?” Lin Guodong raised his brows and retorted: “How can a plastic lighter for one or two yuan be the same as this one?”

After the usual bickering of the old couple, Lin Guodong returned back to the kitchen to cook two dishes for Lin Xian, and then went outside with a cigarette in his mouth.

Lin Xian has eaten the local dishes for two or three days in Shanghai, and he will once again eat the Sichuan dish made by his father which feels very warm.

Lin Guodong’s craftsmanship is naturally very good. The dishes are spicy and delicious, not to mention the mapo tofu, even the white rice, Lin Xian can eat three to four bowls.

After eating, Lin Xian planned to clean the dishes and the chopsticks he used.

Upon seeing Lin Xian’s actions, Wang Hongmei said: “I’ll deal with that later. You can go back home and rest.”

“It’s okay. I’m not tired.” Lin Xian waved his hand.

After cleaning the table and washing the dishes, he picked up his backpack and said, “Mom, I’m going home first.”

“Go.”

Lin Xian didn’t head home immediately, instead, he went to the stationery store and bought a pen and a few copybooks.

This is the first skill he plans to learn, calligraphy!

As the saying goes, observing calligraphy is like observing a person.

Whether a person is good or not, through his calligraphy, you can roughly tell what personality he has.

An elegant, free, and clean handwriting will undoubtedly make people feel good, which is why Lin Xian wanted to master this skill.

After returning home, Lin Xian turned on the air conditioner and sat at his desk.

He then spread out the calligraphy pad and began to practice calligraphy.

Beginners learning hard pen calligraphy start from the most basic imitation.

You will be able to show your own calligraphy style at least when you reach the expert level.

The style that Lin Xian chose to imitate was the works of Master Ren Ping. He has won the highest award in the National Calligraphy Competition for three consecutive years.

Practicing calligraphy is very boring but when you want to relax, you will find joy in it.

Especially when you see beautiful words out of your own writing, the sense of accomplishment is beyond measure.

Before he realized it, an hour had already passed.

After Lin Xian finished his last word, he put down his pen and did some stretching.

In the initial stages of practicing calligraphy, ‘practice makes perfect’. There aren’t any shortcuts. If you want to reach the expert level, all you have to do is to write and write!

Lin Xian set a task for him to practice his calligraphy at least for one hour every day.

Lin Xian then picked up his phone only to realize that Yan Xiaoman had several attempts to call him.

After reaching Yan Xiaoman’s phone, Yan Xiaoman asked first: “What were you up to just now?!”

“I bought a few copybooks to practice calligraphy!” Lin Xian replied.

“Hard pen or brush calligraphy?” Yan Xiaoman suddenly became interested.

Yan Xiaoman’s handwriting is very beautiful which shows that as a little girl her handwriting had always been very good.

After chatting for a while, Yan Xiaoman reluctantly hung up the phone while Lin Xian picked up his guitar from a corner.

To be honest, if it hadn’t been for his trip to Shanghai, he would have forgotten about this guitar.

Lin Xian sat on the floor and slowly plucked the strings with his finger to clean up the dust on the guitar.

Suddenly, a series of beautiful music gradually sounded and echoed in the bedroom.

Lin Xian felt excited after playing a piece of music.

What he just played was ‘Paganini’s Caprice 24’ which had the most difficult guitar score. If it were the past him who played it, he would have made mistakes. But this time, his playing was extremely smooth and there weren’t any flaws.

At present, the grade of folk guitar is divided into ten grades from 1 to 10, lowest to highest.

At this point, Lin Xian felt that his current level is at sixth, whilst the next level would be the professional level.

After playing a few more songs, Lin Xian put down his guitar and turned in his computer to play lol.

…

In the following days, Lin Xian maintained a good routine.

He gets up at 7 o’clock in the morning and goes for a half-hour jog within the community park.

He then comes back home to eat breakfast, practice his hard pen calligraphy for half an hour, and then goes to the restaurant to help.

He goes home in the afternoon to play his guitar and play games.

On the 15th of August, Yan Xiaoman finally returned to Jiangzhen but Lin Xian did not pick her up since she said her father would.

In the evening, after having dinner at the restaurant, Lin Xian told Wang Hongmei that he is going out.

Lin Xian rode his small electric bike to Greenland Park and saw Yan Xiaoman waiting for him there.

Seeing Lin Xian, Yan Xiaoman smiled suddenly.

Lin Xian stepped forward and held her little hand and said, “How did it go in Shanghai?”

“Not very good. I was so bored after you left!” Yan Xiaoman complained.

“Didn’t Sister Lan accompany you around?”

“My cousin is terrible. She basically stays in her bedroom every day to write topics. She doesn’t even care about food anymore.” Yan Xiaoman said in a distressed tone.

This is the case for graduate students. The school arranges very few courses which basically depend on self-study.

Compared with the undergraduate degree, the intensity is higher, coupled with a lot of topics arranged by the professors, it becomes very busy.

Of course, if you want to mess around, you may do so. As to whether you can graduate or not, only ghosts know.

Lin Xian and Yan Xiaoman strolled in the park and didn’t run out of things to talk about.

They wandered until a little after eight o’clock. Yan Xiaoman said suddenly: “Tomorrow, Miao Miao is having her birthday. Please accompany me!”

This Miao Miao’s full name is Miao Shanshan, a student of Experiment 1 and is one of their school’s ‘school flowers’.

Among the top three school flowers, Yan Xiaoman and Zhang Mengyao don’t like each other, but both of them have a good relationship with Miao Shanshan.

“Okay!” Lin Xian nodded without any hesitation.

“Then come and pick me up tomorrow afternoon. Let us buy the gifts together.” Yan Xiaoman said happily.